LOGAN — Across three counties and five campaign stops in Southern West Virginia on Sunday, former President Bill Clinton gave two distinct speeches to two very different crowds, tried in vain to win over angry protesters, caused a commotion in two breakfast spots, went book shopping and took a quick stroll through downtown Charleston, all the while making the argument that his wife should be the next president.
Clinton was greeted in Logan by about 100 angry protesters, many of them holding Donald Trump signs, but a couple hours later was cheered by hundreds of supporters at the state Capitol in Charleston.
As the day’s first rally began inside Logan Middle School, protesters almost drowned out the first speaker, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. They remained noisy and rambunctious as Sen. Joe Manchin introduced Clinton. Then the whole crowd stood silent as Clinton took the stage, before protesters settled into sporadic shouting as he said that West Virginia deserves a major investment from the federal government as the coal industry continues to fade.
“I care about what you’re going through, I get it and I think we can do something about it,” Clinton said in Logan. “You deserve a major national commitment based on the proposition that American cannot rise together if we leave anybody behind.”
Clinton talked broadly about Hillary Clinton’s multi-billion dollar plan to bring new investment and diversify local economies in coalfield communities, her efforts to fight the opioid epidemic and her past successes working with Republicans.
Clinton spoke for about 30 minutes in Logan, slowly pacing in front of a lectern, with no notes.
The crowd inside of about 150, was largely supportive, but about a dozen vocal protesters repeatedly interrupted.
“When’s she going to lay us all off?” one man yelled, a reference to comments Hillary Clinton made last month when she said, “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, and we’re going to make it clear that we don’t want to forget those people.”
Clinton said that the man’s question was fair, but that Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, had written to say she was mistaken in her remarks.
He said he asked Hillary what she would like him to tell West Virginia and Logan County.
“Tell them I’d like them to vote for me, but I don’t care who they vote for,” Hillary said, in Bill’s retelling. “If I get there [the White House], I’m still going to help.”
In November, Clinton announced a plan that she said would bring $30 billion in aid to coalfield communities, in the form of money to clean up abandoned mines, shore up miners’ pension plans, aid struggling local school districts and about a dozen other proposals.
Similar proposals from President Barack Obama have been ignored by the Republican Congress, although smaller aspects of Obama’s plan have been adopted by members of West Virginia’s delegation.
“We’re going to do something to fight climate change, but it’s wrong not to have a major, major investment in West Virginia and the rest of Appalachia,” Clinton said. “It’s morally the right thing to do, but it’s economically important.”
Manchin, who was among the first senators to endorse Hillary Clinton last year, credited Bill for coming to Logan, the heart of coal country, and said no candidate had been to West Virginia as much as the Clintons had.
“Hillary understands what we’ve gone through, she understands not to leave anybody behind,” Manchin said. “You can’t leave Logan County.”
On Monday, Hillary Clinton will campaign in Williamson, in Mingo County, which, like Logan, has seen its economy devastated by coal’s downturn.
Eight years ago Hillary Clinton won 84 percent of the vote in Logan County, on the way to winning the West Virginia primary, even after the Democratic nomination had become a lost cause. Twenty years ago Bill Clinton was the last Democrat to win West Virginia in a presidential election, winning 72 percent of the vote in Logan County.
Times have changed.
William Hannah, of Dingess, in Mingo County, wore an all black T-shirt that read simply “coal” as he shouted from the back of the school cafeteria.
Before the rally, he stood outside with about 100 others, holding a Trump sign.
“We’ve got our own party, the coal party,” he said.
Next to him was Logan County Delegate Rupie Phillips, nominally a Democrat.
“It’s my party, but if you don’t support coal, I don’t support you,” Phillips said. “There’s no way in hell I can support somebody like that. She deserves to be in prison.”
Kevin Stone works for National Armature and Machine, a motor and water pump service business in Holden, Logan County.
“They think this is just hurting the coal jobs, but it’s killing everyone,” he said. “My family’s lived in West Virginia for generations, I’ve been a Democrat all my life and now I’m never voting for a Democrat.”
Arnold Killen, of Harts in Lincoln County, held a Trump sign outside the Logan rally. Did he think Trump would bring back the coal industry?
Killen shrugged, “Well, he didn’t say he was going to destroy it.”
Inside the cafeteria, where the crowd ultimately drowned out protests, there was far more Clinton support.
“I think she’s good for women and children,” Marsha Bryant, of Holden, said. “I happen to be a woman and I think it’s time.”
Anita Weyenberg, Bryant’s sister and another Clinton supporter, noted that they were both daughters of a coal miner.
“Daddy hated the fact that his kids wanted to go in the mines,” she said. “The mines are gone. They’re not coming back. I think it’s time to move on.”
Before the Logan rally, Clinton made three stops.
At Taylor Books in Charleston, he surprised early-morning coffee drinkers and bought a book (“Gratitude” by the recently deceased neurologist Oliver Sacks) that he inscribed and gave to Manchin.
Then he and Manchin strolled down Brawley Walkway to First Watch, where the former president created quite a hubbub, posing for pictures, shaking hands, ambling from table to table and chatting longer than planned as his staff nervously checked their phones.
For five minutes he talked to Talha Jawad, in town from Dallas on consulting work.
A supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders, Jawad said they talked about health care, education and foreign policy as the former president tried to win him over.
“He addressed a lot of our concerns,” Jawad said, as he waited for his eggs. “But it’s going to take some time, it’s going to take some convincing.”
On the way to Logan, the motorcade stopped at the Park Avenue Restaurant in Danville, about half full with post-church diners.
Clinton posed with employees and patrons and talked about the opioid epidemic with Circuit Judge Will Thompson, who started a drug court for Boone and Lincoln counties in 2007.
In the last three years, Clinton said he has had to call five friends who have had children die from drugs.
“It’s killing Republicans and Democrats alike,” he said in Charleston, crediting his wife for proposing a $10 billion plan in September to treat the problem.
He also met William Dillon, 17, in Danville, who credited Thompson’s drug court with getting him back on the straight and narrow and earning a spot on the Van High School baseball team.
Clinton would mention meeting Dillon and Thompson at both of his speeches on Sunday.
His speech in Charleston, at the state Capitol, was an hour’s drive and a world apart from Logan.
There was no booing. There were no protesters.
There were about 500 supporters (according to the campaign) cheering a speech that touched on the issues he talked about in Logan, but was much broader in scope.
“I can hardly remember a time when there was so much promise and so much progress and yet people still are very worried,” he said, encompassing the campaign’s embrace of the Obama years and the nation’s lingering unease. “Hillary’s running for president because she thinks we can never be satisfied until we live in a country of shared prosperity.”
In Charleston, he touched on the minimum wage, financial reform, immigration, student debt and foreign policy, issues that didn’t get mentioned in Logan.
He pushed Hillary as a “change maker” who will be able to get things done.
“We’ll be talking about some big problem and everyone will be emoting about it,” he said, “and she will always say, ‘Yeah, but what are we going to do, how are we going to make it better?’”
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.